Dive Brief:
- New York-based Apple Bank agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) claim that it violated the Bank Secrecy Act between April 2014 and September 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported, according to an order issued in December but made public Friday.
- The FDIC issued Apple Bank a consent order in 2015 requiring that it hire qualified compliance staff, conduct an anti-money laundering (AML) risk assessment and develop internal controls to ensure compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, but the bank failed to comply in a timely manner, the regulator said.
- In a statement seen by PYMNTS.com, Apple Bank said it "has worked diligently and invested considerable resources to address the FDIC’s comments."
Dive Insight:
The FDIC released Apple Bank from its 2015 consent order last May as a result of changes the bank made to its compliance program by September 2019, Apple Bank told PYMNTS.com.
"Apple Bank’s enhancements to its compliance program have been acknowledged by the FDIC and reflect the bank’s commitment to providing superior service to the customers and communities it serves in New York, while maintaining a compliance program that complies with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements," the bank said in its statement.
The $12.5 million civil penalty, which the bank said it paid in December 2020, was appropriate in part because of the gravity of the violations and the bank’s history of them, the FDIC said.
